Movie Review: American Sniper - Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015

Feeling almost normal today after three days of feeling terrible. Happy to be out and about again. I had a hair appointment at 1pm for haircut and color.

Bob met me around 2:50pm to see "American Sniper." The first theater we went to was not showing "American Sniper" even though it was listed on Fandango. The ticket-seller said it's playing at another of their theaters ten minutes down the road. Apparently, Fandango routinely gets the movies at the wrong location for this chain of theaters. We decided to go to a different theater a few minutes in the other direction. It started later, but that gave us time to have lunch at Jim's Restaurant (very similar to Shari's or IHOP). We arrived at the theater just in time for the previews.

American Sniper is based on the true story of Navy SEAL operations in Iraq. Bradley Cooper plays a SEAL sniper, famous for his number of kills. Much of the movie is spent watching Cooper in action as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the decisions he must make while on duty, and the crazy war that is being waged.

In addition, the movie focuses on Chris meeting his soon-to-be wife, their wedding, their relationship and the toll taken on that relationship by his service to our country. Conveying the feelings of a military spouse is given a good amount of screen time, which helps break the war action a little. We learn the gender of his child, as he speaks to his wife, while he is on a tank mission that gets ambushed. You can really feel the anguish through Sienna Miller's performance.

The movie is intense, has the violence of war, and some harsh wartime judgments that must be made. Normally I do not like the violence in movies, but this movie satisfied my curiosity as to what being in a war must be like for the soldiers, what they must go through. From what I saw, it is not an easy task to the make the decisions and take the actions required of them in any given situation.

Hats off to our military, their wives and their families. Thank you for your service to our country.

I give "American Sniper" five stars.

After the movie, I had a Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club meeting at 6:45pm. Bob and I had arrived at the movie separately in our own cars, so I went to the meeting and Bob headed home.

We had an excellent turn out at our meeting...about 30 people. The room we're meeting in is feeling too small!

That's it for Tuesday, Jan. 20.

My Pick for Oscar's Best Picture Goes to... - Sun., Jan. 26

American Hustle. Sunday afternoon, Susan M., Bob and I went to see a top contender for Oscar 2013's Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design (should I go on?) and two other nominations.

Having seen almost all the other Oscar-nominated films for 2013, I pick American Hustle as the Best Picture. It blew the other films out of the water. The story, acting, directing, and entire movie was so much fun to watch! And that's the thing, it was funny! Didn't expect that.

American Hustle takes place in 1978 telling the story of Abscam, and is based on the FBI's skulduggery to investigate government officials taking part in theft, forgery and stolen art. Abscam melds two words: "Abdul" and "scam." Abdul is short for Abdul Enterprises, Ltd., a fictitious company created by the FBI to serve as a front company. FBI employees posed as Middle Eastern sheikhs who had millions of dollars to invest in the United States. The Abscam operation was then re-purposed to target political corruption.

The FBI hired Melvin Weinberg, a con man and informant, to help conduct the operation. That was in real life.

In the movie, Mel Weinberg's character is named Irving Rosenfeld, played to perfection by Christian Bale. Bradley Cooper plays Richie DeMaso an FBI underling who hires Irving to work with the FBI. Then there are the women behind the men: Amy Adams plays Sydney Prosser/Lady Edith Greensly (Irving's mistress), and Irving's estranged wife, Rosalyn Rosenfeld, is Jennifer Lawrence. As the movie's opening line states, "Some of this actually happened."

What follows is a tightly wound tale of entrapment, double crossing and bribery. Each role is very well written, and the camera shots so up-close and personal, you feel like you're in each scene while the characters schmooze, flirt, yell, seduce and plot. Genius.

Watching the movie was pure, unadulterated entertainment. Best Picture of 2013 in my opinion. [Disclaimer: The only movie up for consideration of Best Picture that I have not seen is The Wolf of Wall Street. I cannot judge the merit of that movie.]

All of us loved the movie. If you've seen it, tell me what you thought.

Travel Bug out.